The man in the chair writhed and convulsed when his eyes fluttered open, revealing glowing orbs that pulsated.
Breeze grabbed the joystick with both hands and pulled back with all his strength. He turned to look at Sally who was slumped in her seat and fading away as her body began to dematerialize.
Never should have brought her with me. I do nothing but make mistakes with her.
He looked behind to see how much progress they were making. They were almost out of the chamber when the platform shuddered violently, and then came to a stop and the static subsided. Breeze looked again at Sally and was shocked to see a woman in a flowing white dress standing next to her. She pointed at Breeze and spoke directly into his mind.
“Don’t stop, keep retracting back,” he heard her say.
Breeze nodded, too startled by what he was witnessing to argue. He grabbed the joystick and threw his weight back. The platform shuddered as electrical motors whined in protest.
The static returned with a roar as the platform was pulled back into the chamber by an unseen force. Breeze yelled as he strained to counteract it by pulling back with all his might.
He looked again at Sally and the woman. Sally was disappearing before his eyes as the woman in white looked on in dismay, when she suddenly flew off the platform and descended to the man in the chair. She hovered above him with her arms outstretched and threw back her head. Her flowing white dress swirled around her as the crystalline structure embedded in the peak of the dome struck her with a brilliant light. Her body convulsed as she brought her hands together and pointed them at the man. His body shimmered and writhed in response as the iron tube closed around him like a clam shell. The woman turned and faced Breeze. Her face was twisted in pain as she pointed at him.
The platform shook violently, and then retracted out of the chamber. It moved slowly at first, then with a mighty heave, slid back out as the steel panels rose up to seal the chamber. The sound of metal hitting metal echoed loudly as the hiss of static faded away.
Breeze toggled the joystick, but it didn’t respond. The platform was on full auto.
He let go of it and crawled over to Sally. She appeared solid, but he grabbed her hand to verify it. Her skin was cold as she lay slumped forward in the chair.
The platform settled back down with a thump as the console straightened itself out. The green glow subsided around them.
He touched Sally’s face. It was like ice.
He grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder, then stepped off the platform and headed to the elevator when Ray stepped out from behind a piece of equipment and stood in his way.
“What did you do to her?” he said.
Breeze took a step back. “What did I do? Better yet, what the hell were you doing down here? This place is like a chamber that leads to hell.” He tightened his grip around Sally, determined not to let Ray get his hands on her.
He took a step towards Breeze with his hands outstretched. “Give her to me, I don’t trust you. You’ve been acting strange lately.” Ray spoke with a slow, drawn out voice.
Breeze sidestepped him, keeping one eye on the elevator and the other on Ray. “I’m the weirdo here? Yeah, maybe I was the outsider when I first got here. But you’re the one who’s gone off the deep end. Hell, I had to go and dive into the deep end of the bay just to save your girlfriend from you. And you’re the one calling me strange?” Breeze thought about how his father would talk his way out of a fight with an aggressive and hostile scrap scavenger trying to sell him a load of metal mixed with plastic. Breeze never saw his father armed with a weapon, yet he would marvel at how he would walk away from what could have been an explosive confrontation.
Breeze kept sidestepping toward the elevator when Ray began to convulse. When it ended, he rubbed his eyes and gazed at Breeze innocently. “Breeze, what’s going on? What happened?”
Breeze saw the opportunity for escape and bolted for the elevator. He pushed the call button and the door slid open. “Don’t know, but we can talk about it topside,” he said as he stepped inside.
He heard Ray’s voice waver between confusion and anger as the elevator door shut. He let out a sigh of relief and dropped to his knees. He touched Sally’s back and was relieved she was still breathing.
The elevator stopped and the door opened as Breeze leapt out. He jogged out of the hallway, through the long aisle of machines, and out into the humid night.
He ran down the steps and onto the boulevard. The full moon lit up the landscape letting each building cast long shadows onto it.
He gently laid Sally down and sat next to her. He patted her cheeks and felt her pulse. Her skin was feeling warmer to the touch.
He looked back at the Science and Engineering Building when he felt a tremor. It was followed by a green effervescence that simmered up from the ground and into the air.
The sound of heavy doors banging open shattered the stillness of the night as Ray came tumbling out of the building.
“Breeze, wait!” He bounded down the steps and ran over to them.
Breeze stood up and held his ground, placing himself directly before Sally.
Ray came to a stop just a few feet from them. He leaned forward with his hands on his knees for support and breathed heavily. “This humidity is something, huh? I could never get used to it.”
Breeze said nothing as he stared him down.
Ray waved a hand. “Look, forget about what happened back there. Truth is I can explain it all.”
“You can try.”
Ray nodded as he looked upon Breeze’s stoic face. “Okay, I know I’ve been acting weird lately. Just after the accident-after what I did to Sally—”
“After what you did to both of us. Going maniac and leaving us stranded on a boat in the middle of a major tropical storm,” Breeze interjected.
Ray raised a hand in acknowledgment. “Right. Got me there. After what I did to both of you. Satisfied?”
“I could care less. But are you?”
Ray stumbled back. Breeze was always like a wallflower to him. He wasn’t used to seeing him this assertive.
“Fair enough,” Ray said softly, and then cleared his throat. “After the accident, I got to thinking. Why are we here? What’s the point of all this? I just feel like we’re in limbo, you know what I mean? Like we’re just sitting around waiting for something to happen. Are you with me on this Breeze?”
“Sally said pretty much the same thing to me earlier,” Breeze replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Once again, he thought to himself, it paid to watch and observe his father when he was negotiating. When Jacob would catch a scrap seller in a lie, the seller, desperate to make a deal, would try to placate him by smiling and talking like they were old friends. Jacob wouldn’t buy it, but was smart enough to let the man save face. Breeze knew he had to do the same thing to get Ray to divulge more.
“Yeah, Ray, I’m with you. We’re teammates, remember?”
Ray’s face lit up. “Right! We’re a team, we can talk about anything.” He slapped his knee and laughed.
Breeze struggled to keep from grimacing in disgust. He reminded himself that Sally needed to be protected. “Exactly. Look, I’m sorry that Sally and I confronted you like we did. I’ll take the fault for that. That’s what happens when you let a woman talk you into something. I wanted to leave you alone and let you do your thing, but she insisted that we follow you around. You know how it is; pretty face, soft eyes. What’s a guy to do?”
Ray was grinning from ear to ear. “You’re right, girls can do that to a guy.” He leaned over to look past Breeze. “Is she okay?”
Breeze nodded. “Yeah, she’s good. Just got a little fright from what we saw below, but she’ll pull through. She better ‘cause I’m not carrying her back to the dorms.”
Ray laughed and Breeze did his best
to laugh along with him.
“I’m glad we got that worked out,” Breeze said. “Let’s just make it a point to work with each other from now on. Agreed?”
Ray nodded vigorously. “Yep, good call.” He then pointed at Breeze. “You go first; what did you see below?” Ray’s face changed slightly as he visibly became anxious.
Breeze saw how uncomfortable he was, but didn’t want him to get distracted. He told Ray everything about what he and Sally experienced in the chamber. Everything but the Woman in White. He felt that was a playing card he was going to keep for himself.
Ray nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry you had to see that. But that’s exactly why I was trying to keep you two from going any further into the building!”
Breeze could feel the agitation emanating from Ray. He needed to diffuse him, and quickly. “You’re right and I’m sorry. Like I said; it’s no excuse on my part for following a female and letting her lead. You’re the leader here with the military background, not me.”
Ray tilted his head. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said with a smile. “So did this man in the chamber say anything to you?”
“Not really. In fact, I could barely even see him.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.” Breeze could hear the irritation in his own voice. He tried again. “Yeah, Ray, I’m telling you the truth. Look, I messed up. I brought Sally down there and I shouldn’t have. The only thing I wanted to do was to get her out of there once I did. You were right all along. We should’ve...I should’ve listened to you. Man to man. I get it. Won’t happen again.”
Ray was nodding, but his eyes were glazing over. “Yep. You get it now, Breeze. You know, I take back some of the things I said about you. You’re going to make a great addition to my team.” He stiffened. “I’m mean, you know, this team we have here.”
Breeze quickly jumped in. “I know what you mean. When the other students arrive, you can be team leader, and I can be your second-in-command. Assuming anyone else gets here. You know Oslo, promises, promises.”
They both laughed.
Amidst the laughter and joking around, Sally began to stir.
“What’s going on?” She looked dazed as she rubbed her forehead.
Breeze kneeled down and reached for her hand, then stopped. He looked at Ray and waved him over. “She’s going to need someone she trusts right now.” He gritted his teeth as he spoke the words.
Ray quickly strode over and grabbed her hands. “Sally, it’s me.”
She smiled. “Breeze?”
He grimaced, and then looked at Breeze with a pained expression.
Breeze shook his head and patted Ray on the back. “She’s a girl. She’s doesn’t know any better.”
Ray nodded. “Right. That’s right.” He tried again. “It’s me, Ray. Are you all right?”
Sally’s eyes opened wide as she yanked back her hands. “Jerk! What’s the matter with you?!”
Ray was visibly hurt. He turned to Breeze with a plea for help in his eyes.
Breeze held up a hand in a calming gesture. “Let me handle this.”
He patted Sally on her shoulders. “Sally, Ray was the one who got us out of this jam. Not me.” He took a quick look at Ray and winked. Ray’s mouth was wide open.
Breeze continued. “Yeah, it was wrong of me to drag you down there. Thankfully, Ray showed up and saved us. He shut down the platform and got it to retract. He’s the one to thank.”
Sally scrambled to her feet. “No, that’s not what I remember.” She fixed her ponytail and straightened her jacket. The moon cast a spotlight on her as she pointed at Breeze. “You activated something down there. I remember we got off the elevator and walked into a chamber...,” she paused as she tried to engage her foggy memory, “...and stepped onto some type of platform that lifted up, and-,” she gasped as she put her hands to her mouth and shook her head.
Ray took a hesitant step toward her, and then touched her shoulder.
She slapped it away in disgust. “There was a man inside some sort of a metal tube. It opened up. There was green light everywhere. And I...” She turned to Breeze.
He spoke up. “You started to disappear and I panicked. I tried to find something to shut it down. I found a control system and I—”
”—started to retract us out of the chamber,” she finished for him. Her eyes were wide and shined like orbs. “And that’s when that man in the chair called out to me.”
Ray was shivering. “What did he say?”
Sally’s head whipped in his direction. “He-,” she shook her head and stood silent for a moment before continuing, ”—he wanted to tell me a story.”
She turned to Breeze. “He told me his name was Bram and that he was sent on a mission long ago. He was to head out into the depths of space with nothing more than the power of his mind to propel him.”
Breeze took her hands in his as she stepped closer to him and continued. “He said he was looking for a way back home and that he was lost and lonely. He had spent an eternity trying to find the trail of light he left behind to lead him back, but it had faded after being away for so long. We were the first two souls he had seen and that he had very little of his soul left in his body. He can still sense it, but can’t find a way back to it.” Sally trembled as she bit her lower lip.
“What else?” Ray whispered.
She didn’t look at him as her eyes stayed focused on Breeze. “He wanted to know if we could help him. I told him we could try. I don’t even know why I said that, but I just felt so warm and comfortable speaking to him. It was as if all my worries and troubles were fading away and I didn’t have to be responsible for anything anymore. I could be free.” Tears rolled down her eyes. “So I tried. And that’s when I felt myself letting go. As if I were...”
“...fading away,” Breeze finished for her. “I saw what happened. You were barely visible, like a ghost. I panicked because I knew it was my fault for bringing you down there. I was responsible for you and I failed.”
She shook her head. “No. Bram kept saying that it was okay for me to let go. I felt myself drawn to him. And then she appeared.”
“The Woman in White,” Breeze said.
“Who?” Ray leaned in closer.
Sally swallowed hard and wiped tears from her face. “Kera. Her name is Kera.”
Breeze squeezed her hand. “What else, Sally?”
“She burst in like a flash of brilliant light and told him to stop. She stood between us and he became agitated, and for some reason he kept calling her Raza and asking why he had been abandoned and how come they didn’t come looking for him. She kept repeating ‘Until the half made of light arrives, you will never be whole.’” Sally looked at Breeze with dismay.
Breeze shook his head. “I couldn’t even tell you what that means and I don’t even know who this Kera woman is, or why this Bram guy mistook her for someone named Raza.”
“She’s one of the instructors here.”
“Oh?” Breeze and Ray said in unison.
She told them about her experience with Kera on the beach and how she projected out into space and back.
Breeze was stunned. “Okay. So there are other instructors around here, not just Oslo. She shows up and gives you a midnight lesson. As if this place couldn’t get any weirder.”
Sally nodded. “She made it a point to tell me that a time would come when a friend would need my help, and I wouldn’t be ready. That’s how I felt with Bram. It was like I had known him for a long time and he felt familiar to me. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to reach out to him, though I could still feel the sting of Kera’s words in my mind, and that I would fail when the moment arrived. I didn’t want that to be true and I was so eager to help. That’s when Kera showed up.”
She closed her eyes and brought his hand to her chest.
“She shouted at me to leave, telling me this was not the time. She looked so frightened. I never saw a face with that much fear in it as she pushed me back. Then,” she cocked her head slightly as her eyes fluttered open, “I just remember her shouting at someone.”
Breeze nodded. “I saw her hovering over you and she told me to get us both out. I wasn’t going to argue. Then she waved her hand at us and I felt the whole platform get shoved out of the chamber. I looked at you and you were whole again, but your skin was ice cold.” Breeze patted her hands.
She smiled. “Once again, you saved me. I need to thank you.” She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She lingered for a moment, and then pulled away.
Breeze felt his face burn red and he hoped that the moonlight wouldn’t give him away.
Ray spoke up. “But it was Breeze’s fault for bringing you down there.”
She turned to him. “No. I could have left anytime, but I didn’t. I was just as curious as him, and I needed to know more about what’s going on around here. The more I see, the less I like it. I want to leave.”
Ray smiled.
Breeze was stunned. “Sally, I know this place is not exactly the greatest, but—”
“But what Breeze?” She pulled her hands away from him. “Don’t put your head back in the sand. I know you and Oslo are close, but I don’t know why you would be loyal to him. What has he done for you? Remember what I said to you earlier? Have you really learned anything since you arrived? Do you feel more confident with your powers?”
I was starting to feel more confident with you, he almost said. “I guess not. I mean...not really sure.”
She sighed in disgust and turned to Ray. “I want to go.”
He immediately stepped up and took her hand. She didn’t resist.
“The best thing I’ve heard in a long time,” Ray said as he pulled her away from Breeze and walked down the boulevard with Sally in tow.
Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter Page 22